When the door finally closed upon them, Gordon passed a trembling hand across his forehead, and his fingers came away damp with sweat.
“Curse the brute!” he muttered savagely. “If he does that again, I’ll have to put him out of the way.”
He had intended to tackle the safe, but now he changed his mind once more. He was too much shaken by this last experience to attempt anything of that sort at present, and, therefore, he determined to take a walk and steady his nerves. In less than an hour he was back in Nick’s study, though, and the door was locked.
He was about to try his luck with the detective’s safe.
CHAPTER XIV.
CRAY CALLS ON MRS. SIMPSON.
It was quite early in the afternoon when Jack Cray reached New Pelham, and during his journey to that outlying suburb he had plenty of time in which to think out a plan of action, using as a basis Gordon’s suggestion that he should present himself as a fellow employee of the missing Simpson.
Cray walked briskly through the little town, having inquired the direction in which Floral Avenue lay, and soon came to a steep hill.
On the top of the hill the detective stopped to mop his brow, and as he did so, his keen eyes took in every detail of the scene that lay before him. There was not much of it—just a dozen or so houses strewn about at haphazard in the midst of a maze of newly built roads.